The independent daily Tema was abruptly evicted from its offices in a state-owned building
in Tirana. Police barred staffers from entering the offices on January 8 on the
orders of the Ministry of Interior, said Publisher Mero Baze, who noted that
the newspaper had signed a 20-year lease in 2007. He said he believed the
government had acted in retaliation for a series of articles published in fall
2008 that alleged high-level government corruption. (In December 2008, after
the stories were published, Baze’s car caught fire and exploded, the
Tirana-based Albanian Media Institute reported.) After the eviction, Baze
continued to publish Tema in relocated offices, but he estimated the
paper had lost about 500,000 euros (US$750,000) in improvements it had made to
the old headquarters.

Several men viciously
attacked Baze at a bar in downtown Tirana on November 2, after he published a
series of critical reports in Tema and discussed them on his local television
show, “Faktor Plus.” Baze told CPJ that he had accused Rezart Taci, a principal
in local oil businesses, of tax evasion and had criticized authorities for
inaction. Baze told CPJ that the businessman and his bodyguards had struck him
repeatedly, causing him to lose consciousness. The assault was witnessed by two
of Baze’s colleagues. In a statement to CPJ, Taci denied involvement into the
attack and said Baze’s tax allegations were unfounded. Police arrested Taci on
November 5 in connection with the assault, Reuters reported.

GREECE

Four assailants on two
motorcycles fired guns and threw an improvised explosive device at a parking
lot of the Athens-based Alter TV station on February 17, the Vienna-based South
East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) reported. The attack took place shortly
before the station aired its prime-time newscast, but no injuries were
reported, according to SEEMO and international press reports. Some vehicles
were damaged. George Stergiopoulos, an Alter TV reporter, told CNN the
attackers fired at least 13 shots before fleeing. The New York Times reported that a local radical group, Sect of Rebels, claimed
responsibility and said it was targeting journalists for “colluding with the
corrupt establishment.” The Associated Press said the group had also attacked a
police precinct in Athens.

KOSOVO

Anonymous death threats
were made in mid-year against Jeta Xharra, head of the Kosovo office of the
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), and her colleagues. The threats
followed the May 28 edition of BIRN-Kosovo’s weekly television program, “Life
in Kosovo,” hosted by Xharra on public broadcaster Radio Television Kosovo
(RTK). The program noted that authorities had harassed BIRN-Kosovo reporters
who sought to interview residents of Skenderaj about campaign promises. A few
days after the program aired, the local newspaper Infopress, which carries considerable government advertising, published at
least three commentaries openly hostile to Xharra and her colleagues. A front page article accused the BIRN-Kosovo journalists of being
Serbian spies, and a separate commentary likened “Life in Kosovo” to a “fascist
campaign,” BIRN-Kosovo reported. A subsequent Infopress
commentary said the author “would be honored to shake the hand” of anyone who
would “punish” the reporting team. After the Infopress publication, anonymous, violent messages flooded the station’s e-mail inbox.
CPJ wrote a protest letter to Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and urged his
government to investigate the threats and protect the BIRN-Kosovo journalists.

MOLDOVA

In April, authorities
barred at least 19 journalists for Romanian newspapers, broadcasters, and news
agencies from entering Moldova to cover anti-Communist rallies in the capital,
Chisinau. Stefan Candea, vice president of the Bucharest-based Romanian Centre
for Investigative Journalism, told CPJ that border guards had given conflicting
reasons for refusing the journalists entry. The government offered no official
explanation. Approximately 10,000 protesters took to the streets to protest the
April 5 parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Voronin’s Communist
Party. The protesters said the elections had been rigged and called for a new
vote; on the second day of protests, some protesters stormed and looted the
Moldovan parliament and president’s office, the U.S. government-funded Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Voronin, whose government is allied with
Moscow, accused Romania of encouraging pro-Western protests, according to The
Associated Press. Dozens of people were injured and 200 arrested.

SLOVENIA

Slovenian authorities
filed criminal defamation charges in July against Magnus Berglund, a producer
for the Helsinki-based public broadcaster YLE, after his documentary alleged
corruption in the Slovenian government, the broadcaster said. According to YLE,
Berglund’s report accused Prime Minister Janez Jansa and others of accepting
bribes in connection with a defense contract. Jansa denied the accusation and
asked prosecutors to open a criminal probe against the journalist, international
press reports said. YLE said it stood behind its story. According to the
Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), Jansa’s government also asked
Finnish authorities to pressure YLE, claiming the broadcaster’s conduct “could
shake mutual confidence between the two states.” The Finnish government refused
the request, IPI said. Berglund said he would no longer travel to Slovenia for
fear of being arrested, according to the news Web site EU Observer. The charges could bring up to six months in prison.

UNITED KINGDOM

The High Court in Belfast,
Northern Ireland, ruled in June that Suzanne Breen, an editor for the
Dublin-based Sunday Tribune, had a right to protect her sources. The
Police Services of Northern Ireland had sought a court order to force Breen to
reveal her sources in the Real IRA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican
Army, whom she had interviewed for an April article, according to the
London-based Guardian. The story quoted Real IRA members as claiming
responsibility for the March killing of two British soldiers in the town of
Antrim. The story also contradicted details included in the official account of
the murder. According to the Guardian, Belfast police also demanded that Breen hand
over her mobile phone, computer records, and interview notes. Breen refused to
comply and argued that turning over her sources and notes could put her own
life in danger, the Guardian reported.

Four assailants knocked down and kicked Jim McDowell, editor of
the Belfast edition of the Dublin-based tabloid Sunday World, in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, press reports said. McDowell told the BBC that one assailant said:
“Your paper is trying to get my brother killed.” Two weeks earlier, supporters
of four suspects in the 2001 murder of Sunday World reporter Martin O’Hagan had damaged McDowell’s
car outside a Belfast courthouse, The Guardian reported. McDowell had reported on his
colleague’s murder. Belfast police opened investigations into both attacks.